As the dog licks Biter, the goblin's powerful shoulders slump a bit. Disappointed maybe? As the dog's master calls it down, Biter assists with a one-armed shove… sending the dog a half-a foot in one direction, but Biter a good three steps in the opposite.

Straehan wrote:

The Gnome doesn't even blink before answering, "How much? And the name is Straehan or Strae."

The goblin pulls out of his self-induced tumble with a surprised look at the gnome. "Stray?" His face scrunches up in mock confusion as his red eyes flit between Straehan and the just-shoved dog. "Stray shoulding to watch out. Long-legs is'ing to want to put collar on strays. BAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" When his manic laughter winds down, he wipes one red eye with a tiny finger, "Notting to worrying for the monies. Biter is notting to be having so much golds now." He fishes in about half a dozen spots around his body, pulling out only a handful of coins and a mostly intact blue-jay egg. "Notting to be worth a Stray's time, Biter is thinking." He holds up the egg with a shrug, "Lessing Stray is'ng hungry?"

He watches the group begin their investigation. Wanting to contribute but not wanting to be redundant, the goblin heads off to take a circuit of the smithy without another word. As he walks, he watches the ground and walls for anything strange… another mark or message from whomever put up the jackal-markings. He also keeps his eye out for a window into the smithy.

Be good to get a look at the interior, too… without being distracted, he thinks to himself as he begins his quiet search.

Sneaking around the perimeter of the smithy, searching for more clues or tracks.
When/if he sees a window, he'll sneak in and take a look around inside too. Then head back out through the window.
.
Perception/Stealth on the perimeter & interior
Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Stealth 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27
.
Disable Device on the window 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28.

You do recognize the symbol. It's a disturbing but unfortunately common superstition amoung pregnant women. It's the symbol of Lamashtu, who is occasionally sent offerings to keep her away from a woman in childbirth.

The place is a mess. The other dogs are afraid of you, but the old female still seems to think you're a child, which did seem to annoy that old man. There are no weapons in the forge aside from an old short sword that must be his. You do recall Ameiko saying he's refused to make weapons since his family died, since none of the folks he amde them for saved his family.

"How common is it here to make offerings to gods before childbirth? Either to bless them, or to avoid them? Also, what would such a sign be put into this place? Was someone here pregnant or maybe a husband of such woman lived here?" Ryu leans closer to the symbol, checking how old it may be. Meanwhile, he considers another possibility, perhaps a follower of Lamashtu was here, the symbol doesn't automatically means it has to be someone related to pregnant females. It could mean a lot of other things too.

Detect Magic was cast as mentioned earlier

Once checked out enough, Ryu began to look around the building to seek further signs, then peek inside.

only if it truly was a ghost, what Ryu doesn't really believe in this case. Sure ghosts exist but according to Ryu more often than not charlatans and tricksters are cause for events and superstition related to them. It is more likely that wizards, clerics, or imps pop up rather than a ghost.

That is why I walk around the building and also peek into the house to find either more signs or something magical in a different spot

The goblin warrior stalks through the quiet smithy. As much as he does his searching with overly-large eyes and ears, his fingers do just as much searching. He pauses when he gets to the short sword, climbing near it and getting within a few inches of the blade, looking for any sign that it's anything but the man's own short sword. Perception 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21.

This is just the man's work-place? Or does he also live here? Basically, I'm looking to see fi there is any evidence that what he says is in any way out of line with what his workplace/home say about him. That's why i looked at the blade. If there is nothing, that's fine; just trying to be thorough.

Also, he's obviously continuing to be as quiet as possible. If you'd like another check for the continued effort... Stealth 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30.

Once his quick search is complete, the goblin idly pats the mother dog on the head before climbing back out the window, using his tools to reset whatever locking or closing mechanism he had to release on his way in.

The sword seems to be his. The building seems to be both forge and house, and the forge area is much better kept. One of the rooms seems to have been his son's and has apparently been left as is since the boy's dissapearance. Many of the toys seem to have been hand-made and you did see a few partially completed toys in chest in the storeroom. You also saw sewing equipment stashed in the back of the storeroom as well. You suspect the boy's mother made most of his toys.

Remind me, how long ago did the Chopper kill his family? It had to be 10 years ago, right? I'm only asking because he hasn't changed much in his house at all… which is strange, but not necessarily an indictment at all.

Biter -- content that he's seen all there is to see -- stalks back across the smithy towards window through which he entered, unthinkingly giving mama-dog a pat on the side of her head. He slips out the window, re-sets the latching mechanism, and completes his circuit of the smithy/house.

let me know if you'd like any other perception/stealth checks on this. But he'd be continuing to try to find any evidence of signs or oddities around the perimeter.

Biter re-appears a few minutes later on the opposite side of the smithy from where he disappeared. "Was'ing peoples to be having funs without Biter?"

It's been 5 years, I'm adjusting the timeline foreward a bit. I'll repost the updated timeline some time tonight.

Meanwhile, anyone with Detect Magic up:

Spoiler:

You sense a brief surge of magic and can look up to see a small figure standing in the roadway. The figure resembles a small human child who looks at you, then turns to flee in the direction of Chopper's Isle before vanishing.

Ryu looks somewhat irritated as people continue to ignore him. He answers "Yes" to the half-orc's question without any actual belief in that people will notice him talking, again. He prepares to leave and go back to the Rusty Dragon, obviously his presence here is unneeded. Signs on the building, fake ghosts on the road, to hell with all of them. This is not one of Ryu's best days.

He already awaits an outburst of headache, but to his surprise instead of that his left hand starts to hurt madly. He grasps his left arm, and hides it behind his back, hoping the pain goes soon away.

"Those things have become more common lately. Especially since the death of Nualia Tobyn. Poor girl. Such a beautiful child. So many of the locals believed that as an aasimar, she could help them just by being what she was. She used to be followed by folks asking for her 'healing touch' or a lock of hair, or her blessing on an unborn child. She was always so patient with them, too. Sigh...but that's not really relevant to the current situation. You saw the child, too?"

As the two of you head back to the Rusty Dragon along River Street, you spot Katrine Vinder heading toward the mill.

"Oh, dear, I do hope those rumors aren't true. Her father would be furious if he found her dating a millworker."

So did a successful perception let us see the child? Or the girl heading to the mill? Or something else?

Brindolfin wrote:

"Biter, did you see anything inside?"

Hmmm.. I had meant for Biter's little excursion to be hidden from everyone (including the party-members) -- requiring a perception check of 27 to catch sight of it. Can that question be asked back at the Dragon after Biter mentions his little uninvited foray? :)

The scarred big man approaches the building. He didn't walk out here to return without checking it out. Moving his huge mass around, you learn not to have to make lots of return trips. Strength check to force a door.1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Seeing the child appear with a hint of magic, Sparrow heads in the direction she saw him, keeping an eye out for any unusual signs, maintaining the divination spell. Hearing the tall man's words as he enters the building, she can only smirk to herself. "Subtle as a blind dwarf in a pottery shop."

I can not, it isn't trained yet, only Religion is, but because of that I know that ghosts should be detected by Detect Undead, not by Detect Magic, so I assume its an illusion.

Ryu walked down the street still holding his left hand when he noticed Quink.
"Yes, I saw it, I saw 'something', but I don't think it was a ghost." As he answers Ryu thinks how much it would annoy him getting all day long pestered about touching pregnant women and keeping his hair safe from random scissor attacks. "An Aasimar you say? Why can't people with such issues just go and visit a cleric or a fortune-teller? Peasant superstitions like those can easily drive someone insane."-Or in my case, lead to using my dagger more often- Ryu thought to himself.

As the man mentions the Katrine, Ryu tries to put her somewhere and get a name attached to her in his memory. "Remind me again, who is that girl?"

My bad then, I've been running Carrion crown, where everything is detectably by Detect Magic, so your detect magic did not react when the child appeared.

Quink responds. "That's Katrine Vinder. Rumors say she's trysting with Banny Harker, the manager at the mill. He's a bit of a ne'er do well and has managed to annoy the town by running that noisy log-splitter all night. She's Ven and Solsta Vinder's eldest. You've probably dealt with him, he and his wife run the General Store. They just have the two daughters, Katrine and Shayliss. Ven's a bit overprotective as well. He tends to prefer Katrine to the point of ignoring Shayliss at times. I don't think he'd find anyone worthy of either of them."

And yes, you've been hearing the mill equipment running during your investigation.

"Watch yourself in here. why do you need to see this place anyhow? Simon hasn't been in here since...'

The stone-walled forge is entered through a half-door main entrance leading into an office. A further half-door leads into the forge proper and a corridor leads down the inner wall to a stairwell going up. You can see two other doors in the hallway, one on either side of the corridor. A full door appears to lead into the forge and another half-door leads into a front room that, from the smell, serves as the dog's den.

Biter:

You know that the full door there actually links to the storeroom in the forge.

Brindolfin moves to the main door to the forge as he speaks, "I am curious about this place, and don't want to come back later to see if you are hiding anything. It is to your advantage for us to make sure nothing is here so you can be cleared of any wrongdoing. Where did Simon go when he was here?"

The big man is used to smaller people yielding under his intimidating, scarred gaze.

There's a smaller door to the right of the forge room, obviously where the side door in the hallway connects and an outer, rear door to the yard. It looks like a typical forge, though you don't see signs of any weapons or armor being made, just farm implements. The only weapon in view is a shortsword on display in the office.

"Simon used to play all through here. I was going to train him and he loved to watch me make stuff. He'd also play with the dogs, and of course, his room upstairs."

Continuing with Ryu & Quink: "Yes, Nualia Tobyn was an aasimar. They found her washed up on the beach after the great storm of 4687. She'd taken a good smack to the head and never remembered anything about herself or her past. I always thought she was older than she seemed. You can't really tell with aasimar, they age somewhat like elves. Father Tobyn adopted her and was training her for the church. I think if they'd been sure which was her body, they'd have set up a shrine to her."

When the huge man heads into the smithy, Das following in exasperation, Biter drags his eyes away from the retreating ghost to follow. He calls out in an exaggeratedly loud voice, "OH, Biter is'ing also to be going into long-leg's shop… where he is'ing never to having being before."

He follows the two long-legs around, poking at seemingly-random things. When Das [does something that distracts him for a bit], Biter hops up and whispers to the big long-legs, "That'ing door(the one NInja referred to as the 'full door' a couple of posts up) is'ing to go into a keeping room of'ing some kind."

Das looks annoyed, especially when Ruby comes out to sniff at Biter again before giving a long doggy sigh and returning to her room.

The upstairs is laid out as living quarters. There are two bedrooms separated by a small washroom, a kitchen, a dining area and a parlor.

The boy's room seems to ahve been left as it was. There are still some handmade toys scattered around, including a minature set of forge tools and a few stuffed or carved animals resembing the dogs the place is named for.

"Simon loved those stuffed toys Madellin made him. He had one that looked like Ruby. Carried it everywhere. It vanished with him."

Spoiler:

Note the ghost did seem to be carrying something, but anyone who rolled under 20 didn't get a good enough look. Over 20 it looked more like some kind of carved bird, not a dog.

Das looks at the strange woman, blinks and seems to stand straighter, sucking his stomach in and brushing his muttonchop whiskers. "Simon carried a stuffed version of Ruby all the time. We never were -lucky-" the last word is bitter indeed "enough to get a Stoot bird. Maybe that's why he targeted us?"

New to town, the local names being shuttled back and forth pass as an incomprehensible blur to Straehan. He follows along quietly as the group enters the house, using his eyes more than his ears. Nothing in all that the smith says or does registers as more than the act of a grieving man - down to leaving the boy's bedroom as a shrine to his memory. He considers the ghost-boy's appearance, toys, and the direction in which he left... Chopper's Island seems a good starting point for an investigation.

Biter's face scrunches up at looking (again) at the toys. "Long-Legs, was'ing the boy-ghost to be carrying any toys when he is'ing to visit you?" Biter shrugs, "Cause when Biter was'ing to see boy-ghost, it was'ing to have a toy... notting a mutt toy, though."

Pure chaos..... So who all detected magic? Ryu did and answered Kaddoc's question, but then emo'ed off to be alone, so did anyone else? Also, did the detect magic detect the 'spirit'? Because detect magic shouldn't pick up undead (standard undead at least) and a Knowledge(religion, or arcane) check would easily pick that up and identify the apparition as being most likely some sort of illusion.

Pure chaos..... So who all detected magic? Ryu did and answered Kaddoc's question, but then emo'ed off to be alone, so did anyone else? Also, did the detect magic detect the 'spirit'? Because detect magic shouldn't pick up undead (standard undead at least) and a Knowledge(religion, or arcane) check would easily pick that up and identify the apparition as being most likely some sort of illusion.

When I asked about the symbol no one cared, then this stuff with the Magic Detection which turned out not to detect messed things up a bit, I didn't roll perception at all because I used the spell, now I can at best ignore it ever happened. Anyway, what you are asking is exactly what my issue was with the ghost. Ryu left the place because this many people in a place just hinder investigations anyway.

The_Ninja_DM wrote:

My bad then, I've been running Carrion crown, where everything is detectably by Detect Magic, so your detect magic did not react when the child appeared.

Quink responds. "That's Katrine Vinder. Rumors say she's trysting with Banny Harker, the manager at the mill. He's a bit of a ne'er do well and has managed to annoy the town by running that noisy log-splitter all night. She's Ven and Solsta Vinder's eldest. You've probably dealt with him, he and his wife run the General Store. They just have the two daughters, Katrine and Shayliss. Ven's a bit overprotective as well. He tends to prefer Katrine to the point of ignoring Shayliss at times. I don't think he'd find anyone worthy of either of them."

And yes, you've been hearing the mill equipment running during your investigation.

Great, that means I didn't accomplish anything at all there then.

"I can see how letting the mill work in the night could be annoying."
Ryu replied as he watched the girl get out of sight.

Quote:

Continuing with Ryu & Quink: "Yes, Nualia Tobyn was an aasimar. They found her washed up on the beach after the great storm of 4687. She'd taken a good smack to the head and never remembered anything about herself or her past. I always thought she was older than she seemed. You can't really tell with aasimar, they age somewhat like elves. Father Tobyn adopted her and was training her for the church. I think if they'd been sure which was her body, they'd have set up a shrine to her."

As Quink changes topic back to the aasimar Ryu began to think the old many had some special interest in the girl to talk about her again and again. "Well, an aasimar could be born to an elf or any other race, but I doubt they get a longer life just because their celestial blood. It is true they look usually better or are friendlier than most people, but when I was in Absalom I met some that were very unlike the rumors and popular knowledge. One of them owned a whorehouse, a very profitable one indeed by the way, and there was also a fat old butcher who only differed from your typical fat old butcher by his silvery skin tone." Ryu avoided mentioning that this butcher helped getting rid of "evidence" for local gangs.

Ryu sighed. The pain in his arm finally went away. "Well, did that girl ever show any evidence of healing powers? Because if not, she deserves no shrine, or if yes only when the butcher also gets his own. Aasimar and tieflings are nothing special, if you want creatures with divine power born to the humans then you better seek out atleast a half-angel, those are supposed to actually still have proper healing powers, and sometimes even wings."

The man began to irritate Ryu, but Quink at the very least did listen when Ryu spoke, so Ryu remained patient about the old man's story of the aasimar and the town. He decided he could perhaps also learn something useful from him and directed the conversation towards the temple. "So, I think I know about the church, it was destroyed in a fire right? That is what caused so many deaths. Are there other churches in the city since the fire? And what about the home of that cleric with the adopted aasimar, did they live in the church or is there now an abandoned home somewhere?" Ryu began to poke a bit at Quink as they got closer to the inn to inquire about opportunities to get the Phoenix Cult a home here.

Ryu waited for a reply, once Quink answered him he offered a drink in the Dragon to him, on the house. It is important to make friends, and a man like Quink who likes to talk, to talk a lot, can be useful as a friend.

At the Dragon, Quink continues his tale."Not only the church, but a large part of the town's north side as well. No one ever found out waht started it, though. No, no other churches. The Chapel and now our new Cathedral handle all services. Father Tobyn and now Father Zantus both serve, or served, Desna. However the building was and is always open to other faiths. A lot of deaths? well, yes and no. While many folks died, most of them were in the chapel at the time. Just, coming on top of the Chopper murders ending in the death of Sheriff Avertin, people got a bit nervous. Most will not even discuss the incidents, and the time is always refered to as 'the Late Unpleasantness'."

He takes a drink and continues, "I can't help but wonder what part those old Thassalonian ruins played in it. From what was said, the shrine old Stoot had was in a portion of them. Of course, the town authorities sealed them off before I could make an examination."